Menu change - Gotta love copycat recipes! Come try it!

I didn't get what was on the menu plan ready in time (frankly, I was just tired!) so I did the next best thing - IMPROVISE!  Josh has football practice from 5:45 - 7:45 so I knew we'd be eating late (is it wrong to still want to eat as a family even though we're not eating at 6, but at 8pm?  Frankly, I HATE HATE HATE eating that late, but the thought of Josh just sitting at the table eating by himself makes me sad.  What does anyone else do when you have late practices?)  I'd love to know.  Because we have to leave at 5:15 to get there and he certainly doesn't want a full meal in his belly before he leaves -- so there's no alternative, unfortunately.

One of Drew's favorite meals is actually a Stouffer's dish:  Grandma's Chicken and Rice Bake.  But this is a) so ridiculously priced for the size, b) becuase of the price of one...it's even MORE ridiculous for us becuase of the appetites of the family, we would have to purchase two to feed everyone, c) It's not real healthy -- in a 9 oz serving, it's got 15 grams of fat, 360 calories, 880 mg of sodium, 6 grams of SATURATED fat and frankly that doesn't leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling.  I tried and tried and finally found a way to duplicate it at home.

SO, since we'd cooked some chicken out on the grill the other day and that was in the refrigerator -- I had the base for my improv dinner... Here's what you do to make this delicious meal at home for YOUR family:

You need: 

1. Chicken -- it can be chicken you boil on the stove, leftovers from the grill, from a can, from a rotisserie, you name it!  I typically only use chicken breasts so that's generally what we use unless they have a sale on rotisserie chickens at the store and then I'll use one of those but something about deboning a chicken just really, REALLY oogies me out!
2. bag of frozen veggies (green beans, corn, peas, carrots)
3. 2 cups of white rice
4. 2 cans of cream of chicken soup
5. 3/4 cup of milk
6. 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers (somethign we always seem to have in the house)

And here is how easy schmeezie it is to throw together.  Like I said before, I had 2 1/2 large breasts that had been grilled leftover in my fridge so I just cubed it.  I cooked the 2 cups of rice in my rice cooker.  I nuked the veggies in the microwave so they were done.  Then into a 9x13 baking dish I emptied the 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and combined with the milk.  Once the chicken was finished being cubed, it was stirred in.  Once the veggies were done, they were drained and stirred in.  Once the rice was done, it was stirred in.  If I needed a little more milk to make it a little less thick (the rice WILL absorb a little more of the liquid) I add a splash here and there.  In my hands, I crush the Ritz crackers and baked it for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.  EASY SCHMEEZIE! 

I'm serious, I wish everything I made was SO SIMPLE!  :)  If you try it, let me know what you think!  I promise you'll never buy those Stouffers ones again!